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KCSPCA and me / POSTED ON A PIT BULL CHAT ROOM photos removed for ease of reading
(one of our group has spoken to this complainant)
I've been reluctant to post this for several reasons, but now that the court proceedings are over, what
the heck.
I have two pits: Buster and Allie
I never leave them outside at night or in bad weather. In fact, I almost always ride a motorcycle so if I
am not at home, chances are the weather is pretty good.
For the one or two of you that may be interested, I also have several older bikes, but my everyday ride is
a Buell 1125R.
I have several vehicles in my yard, including two vans that I used to drive. Each dog has it's own van
where they have dug out an area beneath for shelter (they each have water bowls, of course, but they
cannot be seen in these photos).
I was paid a visit last June by a Kent County (Delaware) SPCA animal control officer on a complaint from
a new neighbor that my Buster had gotten loose the day before (for perhaps five minutes). At that time,
I was told that the law requires that I get a doghouse for each of them. I replied that, of course I would
get dog houses for them long before the weather turned cold. But that during the peak summer months,
I cannot believe that this is so very important. He said nothing in reply. I gave him the phone number to
my cell phone and asked that if there was every any other problem, that he should call me. I also
explained to him that although my house does have a Delaware address, the state line goes through my
property and that most of my property, including the portion where I keep my dogs, is in Maryland and
thus outside of his jurisdiction.
On Thursday, July 8 of this year, ironically the second anniversary of the tragic story found here ( SPCA
Kills Lost Pit Bull Even After Owners Call - Introductions ), I was again paid a visit by another KCSPCA
animal control officer, an arrogant and beefy idiot named Sgt. Hulse.
But this time I was not home. He apparently came in response to another complaint (from this same
constant complainer) about my Buster getting loose. The problem? Buster had not been loose, but
another dog that is owned by another neighbor that looks a bit like Buster had been.
I was told that the Maryland authorities were called first, that they in turn called their Delaware
counterparts, and that both were there. Again, I was not.
Sgt. Hulse of the KCSPCA ignored what I told the previous officer about the state line, didn't call me, and
did not write me a ticket. Instead, he took both of my dogs. I came home at around dinner time to feed
my kids and instead of being greeted by them, I found a note telling me that they had been taken away,
a heavy-handed act that I thought was reserved only for dogs that had been somehow abused or
neglected. And since I had heard of the sad story of what these same bastards had done to Teija, I
feared for my dog's life and could not sleep that night.
The law says that I must supply both shade and shelter for the dogs, and perhaps I am wrong but just as
it seems not very important to provide shade in January, I fail to see the importance of providing dog
houses for my kids in early July! It is now two months since they have the dog houses in the photos
above and even though I have placed their dinner and other treats in them, neither dog will go into
either dog house for any longer than it takes to retrieve the treat or to drag the bowl of food out of there
to eat it outside. So I hardly fail to understand how not having these houses is in any way abusing or
neglecting my dogs in such a heinous way that they should be taken from me, and I wonder if there is

any chance that this would have happened had my dogs been any other breed?
I acquired two dog houses the next evening and called the KCSPCA and was told that I could come to get
them the following day. Another sleepless night awaited me, furious that they had taken them on such
flimsy pretext and fearing for their well being.
Saturday morning at 8:45 am, Sgt. Hulse called me and asked if I had acquired dog houses and I said
that I had. He asked if I could come to get my dogs and I said that while I could, I had blown the head
gasket in my truck the previous day and that, of course, I could not bring them home on my bike. He
said that, as a courtesy, he would bring them to me and when I asked when I might expect him, he said
that he would be there right away.
It takes perhaps twenty minutes to make the drive from their shelter to my place. An hour went by and I
became nervous. An hour and fifteen minutes and I thought, surely he should be here by now. At a
quarter to ten I called the KCSPCA and asked if he had left yet and I was told that he's out in the parking
lot talking to some friends of his.
I'll admit it. I got mad. Perhaps it was the lack of sleep but more likely it was the image I had in my
mind. This was the peak of summer when we had a number of 100 degree days and a particularly hot
sun beats down over here on the Delmarva paninsula, where there is little air pollution to filter the sun's
rays as there is in most urban areas. Everyone around here has seen Animal Control's trucks, with their
metal cages mounted in the beds of pickup trucks. I had a vision of my dogs roasting in these parked
trucks while he chatted away the time...
I really don't recall exactly what I said, but I do recall saying that if he isn't here soon that I was going to
call a lawyer.
At 11:30, he called me back to say that he was going to bring them back to me as a courtesy, but that he
isn't going to now because I 'got ignorant' with his dispatcher. He was determined to teach me a lesson.
I drove my little truck, now running on maybe three cylinders, to their facility and was there by noon.
They were busy and in the hour or so that I was kept waiting, there was a lot of chat among the several
folks waiting in line.
One offered that she sadly was there to drop of her elderly dog that she could not have where she was
moving. Another offered that he was there to adopt a cat for his daughter. I told them why I was there
and they were all horrified.
So, hearing this, Sgt. Hulse and another similarly ignorant slab of beef came out and escorted me into a
private room. When he began to lecture me about how he was going to bring me my dogs as a courtesy,
I interrupted and said, 'But then you changed your mind and decided not to, so instead of this being a
courtesy, it was a damn lie.'
He whipped out his ticket book and wrote me two tickets - one for not having a dog house for each dog $91 per dog or $182. He then brought my dogs out to me, one at a time. Were they ever happy to see
me!
I took them home and was surprised that they were in good condition. But about five or six days later,
they both showed signs of sever illness - Buster had the worse cough I had ever heard in a dog and Allie
had not energy and refused to eat, and she had never refused anything to eat!
I read up on kennel cough and on Monday I took them to the vet. It was another 100 degree day and
the receptionist told me that their waiting room was full of dogs and because my dogs are probably

contagious, we had to wait outside in the heat (there was no shade and my truck is not air conditioned).
She brought out cold water for the dogs twice, but nothing for me and both the dogs and I were roasting
in the heat. We waited for an hour and fifty minutes in that heat and then I decided that, since what they
had was probably viral and that there's really little that you can do for a viral infection other than to let it
run it's course, and since it was going to cost me a fair amount of cash to have the doctor see them even
though there was probably almost nothing that he could do for them, I decided to take them home and
to see how they were doing the next day. They already seemed to be doing a bit better than they were
on Saturday afternoon.
And I also decided to shop for a new vet - one that wouldn't leave us waiting outside in the heat for
almost two hours!
Within a few days, they both recovered and became their old selves again, happy and healthy, and I was
so relieved!
I went to court this past Monday. I had asked for and planned for a jury trial. I felt certain that I could
beat both Sgt. Hulse and the states attorney - all I had to do was convince one juror that I had
committed no crime worthy of such punishment.
My witness, the breeder and good friend who gave me Buster, took the day off from work to be there.
I was there by nine o'clock. The judge did not come in until well after eleven. Another judge had called in
sick and so this judge was doing double duty. There was a full docket and I saw that if I was going to
proceed with a trial that this was going to run into most than one day. I was prepared to argue the case heck I would have won it on the jurisdictional issue alone and I was not convinced that at least one juror
would not have seen these areas beneath the vans as accepable shelter during the peak of summer.
But I could not see asking Tom to take another day off from work and I was eager to put this entire
mess behind me. I learned that the true fine for not providing a shelter for a dog is $50 and the state's
attorney offered to make the tnire fine for everything $25. I explained to the judge that I was 100%
convinced that I was not and could not be found guilty of the charges, but due to the time involved that I
would plea no contest and pay the $25 fine.
Then I learned that, with court costs, 'assessments', whatever, that this $25 fine would cost me $97. And
then the clerk of the court tried to bump it up to $104! I had to go back into the courtroom and wait for
the other cases to be heard, appeal to the judge, and finally, it was agreed that $97 is the 'correct'
amount. Not happy about this, I paid it, hoping that this would put an end to this saga.
But as he were exiting the courthouse, my friend and witness overheard Sgt. Hulse say into his cel phone
that he was planning to pay me another visit...
I'm guessing that this is not quite over yet, although I pray that it is!